To Cold Cap, Wig or Commando?!?

Losing your hair will be inevitable with the type of frontline drug the majority of women are given who have ovarian cancer. How you go about dealing with this side effect...well, that’s where you get to make the decision.

Chemo cold cap

In 2017 it was still extremely expensive (still is) to go the cold cap route and without knowing whether it would truly work or not. Now, some cancer centers have them available for patients to utilize and add on to part of their plan – if yours doesn’t, there are several organizations that provide them and/or allow for you to rent them.

The process extends your treatment days by about 3 hours or so – which for some can be too long. Cap and Conquer is an amazing organization that helps with funding resources for the cold capping process.

What about wigs?

Wigs can be fun! They can also be very heavy and hot – I had no idea! And if you’re body is anything like mine was, the hot flashes from menopause and treatment combined were more than I could handle and I’d be taking the wig off before I’d even get to where I was going.

I had two younger children at the time and for their sake, I wore it 2-3 times total until they were use to their mom not having hair. Specifically, my daughter wanted to ensure no one would make fun of me. But if you’re just not comfortable with going the no hair route, head to your nearest wig shop and start trying on in advance of losing your hair, it takes some time to order them.  Some insurance companies also provide some coverage – for me, after my deductibles were reached, I received a few hundred dollars, all I had to do was turn in the receipts.

Choosing to go commando

Now, if you’re like me...you’ll choose to go commando. No wig, maybe a ballcap every now and then. I embraced what I didn’t think I possibly could. I think it actually made my confidence soar. When you have no hair, and all eyes are on you, you have no choice but to own it...hold your head high and smile.

To try and cover-up for the fact that I had no hair I would wear fabulous earrings so people had something to focus on instead. Who knew how much it would actually work AND how fun it could be – instead of being known for my bald head, people started gifting me large pairs of earrings to wear – it was great!

Make the decision that is best for you

Whichever choice you decide to make, make sure it’s one you are comfortable with...that you can fully get behind and be as okay with losing your hair as you can be.